Brothers.  

Tim and Chris Brown are the youngest of five children.  Born and raised in a suburb of Hartford, CT, a place called Newington.  During their early lives, both were enthusiastic soccer players and both quickly developed a love for listening to the local fire departments on a scanner. And for chasing the local fire trucks, however they could...  The boys were also fortunate enough to live close enough to New York City to pick up an occasional “skip” of FDNY’s (Fire Department City of New York’s) radio transmissions. With this they became fascinated.  Fascinated to be able to sit in their home, or in their cars, and listen to the voices of the greatest fire department in the world, live, as events were unfolding. They were always left wanting to hear more.  

Tim became the first to realize the dream of firefighting as a Junior Firefighter on Newington’s Volunteer Fire Department at age 15.  He joined the town’s Volunteer Ambulance Association at 17 and worked there until he headed off to college. While he attended the University of New Haven, he lived at the local firehouse for free in exchange for riding the trucks. Tim’s first career position soon began on the New Britain CT Fire Department. Tim worked in New Britain for several years until he received his letter from the FDNY.

Tim started his FDNY career in the South Bronx, on 73 Engine.  After 7 years of “punishment” there, he moved to 4 Truck in the Times Square section of Manhattan for a year. 

Though Chris was young during the start of Tim’s career, he always knew the path he would follow. In 1984, Chris too left Newington, and started college in Newport, RI, with intentions of working toward a career in federal arson investigation. During college, Chris made every attempt to get to the City and ride with Tim at work.  This heightened the firefighting ‘bug’ in Chris’ blood, and soon after receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Administration of Justice, he took the test for and was hired by the Providence, RI Fire Dept.  Since Tim maintained his CT Fire Instructor’s certification during his work in FDNY, he was able to lead his brother’s live fire training in the academy.

In 1992, Tim achieved his life long dream of a spot in Res3cue in the Bronx. Tim spent about 10 years assigned to Rescue 3, during which he was a part of the FEMA USAR team.  He participated in their activities in Oklahoma City and the Atlanta Olympics.  He also responded to both terrorist bombings of the World Trade Center. During his assignment to Res3cue, Tim was detailed to the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management (OEM).  His position with OEM required him to respond to major emergencies throughout the city and to oversee inter-agency cooperation.

Throughout their careers, the brothers have maintained close contact and involvement with each others’ worlds.  Through the years, FDNY has been unfortunate enough have a string of line of duty deaths, and Providence has had its share of close calls. While both brothers escaped without physical injury, they were each left in search of a way to keep tabs on the other. By networking through the fire service Chris discovered that the technology existed to stream the audio of the fire radios, or scanners, of their cities live on the Internet so they could listen to each other “on the job.”

Thus, theBravest.com was born... FDNY and Providence Fire's radio transmissions were now live on the web!

This allowed Tim and Chris to listen to each other LIVE while they worked.  For several years, this provided peace of mind for the brothers.

Until…the unthinkable happened...

Click here to read about Tim and Chris' experiences on 9/11/01.

The summer following 9/11/01, Chris and Tim were called to Washington, DC to assist in the establishment of the Office of Public Health and Emergency Preparedness in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Tommy Thompson.  Chris and Tim were tasked with creating command and control both internally and externally to deal with bioterrorism. After spending several months there, Chris returned to his children and his job in RI. Tim remained with OPHEP.  

In April of 2003, Rhode Island experienced its greatest loss of life from a fire, the Station Nightclub fire. (This was also the 4^th worst loss of life fire in US history). As the enormity of this tragedy was realized, the Governor of RI appealed to the federal government for assistance. Once again, a great tragedy would bring the Brown brothers together. The Secretary of HHS was contacted and he dispatched Tim to Rhode Island to work directly with Governor Carcieri.  As a result of his service and operations during this tragedy, Tim was asked to stay on as the Governor's Senior Advisor for Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Tim successfully served the State of Rhode Island for over a year on this detail from the FDNY, before returning to NYC.    

Tim retired from the FDNY in July of 2004, after 20 years of service, living out a firefighter’s dream career… the South Bronx, midtown Manhattan, Res3cue, OEM, FEMA/USAR and the highest levels of the federal government…

Chris is still working on the job in Providence, RI.  He's assigned to Providence Fire's Special Hazards Truck.  It's the equivalent of the FDNY's heavy rescue.  And he loves every minute of it.   

So the next chapter begins…A bond of brothers, real brothers…

theBravest.com

Since its inception, the popularity of theBravest.com’s streaming audio has grown beyond the brothers expectations, and the streams are now hosted by a radio station quality streaming audio web server and fed by 5 top-of-the-line Motorola mobile fire radios tuned to the active frequencies of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, da Bronx/Staten Island as well as the FDNY Citywide frequency. Listeners can choose which borough they listen to, hear everything said on that frequency without interruption, and can also monitor multiple FDNY streams at the same time. At any given time, more than 150 listeners can be found tuned in to the live audio streams.

Today, theBravest.com continues to operate with the dedicated commitment of the Brown brothers, who, in addition to serving up the streaming audio feeds, have dedicated their efforts to taking theBravest.com to the next level. Each day, current FDNY related news is posted to the site, along with numerous links to additional FDNY resources. In addition to keeping up with the current FDNY news, all past stories are archived and remain available for their readers to view, along with related information on topics such as Major Emergencies, Rescues, the FDNY Brotherhood and FDNY Events. In the same way the popularity of the streams grew, theBravest.com has quickly become the “go to” website for current, FDNY-related news. theBravest.com’s new weekly FDNY eNewsletter brings news updates, information on current events and new products directly to the mailboxes of over twenty thousand registered recipients.

In addition to the content related services, theBravest.com has also grown into a proven leader in offering unique merchandise relating to the fire service, specifically the largest and best fire department in the world, the New York City Fire Department (FDNY). The company deals mainly in licensed FDNY products and content that upholds the FDNY motto “Do the right thing.”  Since proceeds from the sale of official FDNY merchandise benefit the FDNY Foundation (formerly the FDNY Fire Safety Education Fund), not only does this ensure the audience receives only quality merchandise, but guarantees the direct support of FDNY charities.

Whether viewers visit the site to listen to streaming audio feeds, read the news or purchase merchandise, theBravest.com understands that firefighters and their families and followers are best served by brother firefighters. And who better than Tim & Chris?  They still thoroughly enjoy listening to what they have created. They are still amazed, as they sit in the lobby of a hotel in Miami, Indianapolis, Sacramento or Antigua and listen to the voices of the proud members of FDNY.

Their dedication is repaid by simply knowing that they alone have enabled people worldwide to be able to take part in what was once the most fascinating part of their childhood.  

theBravest.com is proud to be able to offer to their listeners the realization and reality of what was once merely a boyhood dream to them…

FDNY LIVE as it happens

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year

theBravest.com

Serving the FDNY Community since 1999

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